Over the years, Sunday church services at Vineyard Columbus have become a bit like a date for
Janet Naticchia and her husband, Mike.

Despite being amid hundreds of other worshippers, it’s the one time during the week, she said,
when they feel as though they are able to be alone.

Alone, for the Naticchias, means an hour or so away from the worry of watching over 23-year-old
son Nick, who has a seizure disorder and autism.

While the couple worships, Nick attends a Body Builders class where instructors teach Christian
lessons to teens and adults with cognitive disabilities.

The class is part of the Northeast Side church’s disability ministry. It also offers a monthly
Joyful Noise: No Shushing Allowed service, during which teens and adults who have developmental
disabilities worship with streamers, instruments, music and movement.

The Naticchias said they were unable to find similar assistance elsewhere and drive about 40
minutes to attend Vineyard’s services. Before they found the program about

10 years ago, they took turns going to church so one parent could stay home with Nick.

Body Builders meant the couple could attend church as a family with their two other
children.

Volunteer director Deb Petermann points to a Bible story from the book of Mark in which four men
carrying a paralyzed man are unable to get through a crowd to Jesus, so they dig an opening in the
roof above him and lower the man down.

“Churches lack vision for who Jesus hung out with. We’ve made it nice and tidy and neat,” said
Petermann, whose brother, Rodney, had severe cognitive disabilities before dying at age 50.

“Any Christian’s job is to share Jesus in whatever way it can happen.”

Petermann also works for the Ohio office of the Joni and Friends International Disability
Center, which offers training and conferences for churches. The office also offers family retreats
and operates a program that takes refurbished medical equipment to poor communities in El
Salvador.

She said she recently has seen an increase in the number of churches asking for training,
especially among those that primarily serve African-American populations. Vineyard isn’t the only
church that has caught on.

Some, including Northwest United Methodist Church in Upper Arlington and Emanuel Lutheran Church
in Marion, offer gentle worship services for people with special needs. Others offer programs for
children or have responded to other needs of congregants.

Alice Wilson of Westerville has attended a few Joyful Noise services with daughter Kim, 21, who
has Down syndrome. She said she also feels welcome at weekly services and Bible studies at Sharon
Woods Baptist Church on the North Side.

“Wherever I’m in the congregation, I can hear her,” Alice Wilson said. “Nobody says ‘shh.’ They
accept that she’s praising God in the way she was born to do.”

Wilson said the Joyful Noise service allows Kim to be with friends, and she hopes other churches
follow Vineyard’s lead.

“When you’re ministering to a special-needs person, you’re not just ministering to one
individual, you’re ministering to the whole family,” she said. “Of all places that should be
accepting and loving of people with special needs, that would be the church.”

Naticchia said the Vineyard ministry offers a spiritual connection for Nick, who seems to
receive a sense of peace from Body Builders.

She described him after one class at which others had prayed for him.

“He came out and pointed and said ‘I see Jesus,’ and he doesn’t talk at all,” she said. “And it
was clear and specific, and just a joy.”